Hello and thank you for visiting AikiWeb, the
world's most active online Aikido community! This site is home to
over 22,000 aikido practitioners from around the world and covers a
wide range of aikido topics including techniques, philosophy, history,
humor, beginner issues, the marketplace, and more.

If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced
features available, you will need to register first. Registration is
absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today!

My ki has been depleted by hard practice; only pizza can restore it. If you do not understand this fundamental truth of aikido then you will never be any good.

Take the character this clearly shows a roof over an oven and represents the feeling of joy and love that one experiences when eating pizza. of course expresses the energy contained within the pizza and finally illustrates a man carrying a stack of pizza boxes with sides and drinks on top.

So I went to Karate tonight; I've not seen my mate in a while and he's going through a rough patch and he was teaching so I decided to train with him. In my previous post I talked about the way of the Aikidoka being found in getting hit and I had this very much in mind as sparring came up.

I'm very hard to hit; I see everything as it develops and either I block it or I move. My acceptance of being hit and my determination to watch the blow as it hits me has massively improved my timing. I suppose this is what the old stories mean when they talk about battering the student with a bokken until they stop defending themselves as an initial step of training and perhaps part of what O-Sensei was talking about when he talked about non-resistance.

In this case I am not mentally resisting the attack, I'm allowing it to develop, there is no thought in my mind of stopping it or avoiding it. I create no desire for things to be different, I embrace reality on it's own terms.

I used to have this problem where I flinched and stiffened up when attacked. Then I remembered how many times people from Kato Kiyomasa to Miyamoto Musashi to Yammamoto Tsunetomo have said "You're going to die; get over it" and then I formulated my own version.

"The way of the Aikidoka is found in getting hit" and from then on everytime I faced being hit I simply accepted that I was going to be hit and there was nothing I could do about it. Occasionally I even let myself be hit, mainly to check that the kohai are attacking properly, but ever since I adopted the habit of accepting I'm going to be hit I find that I no longer flinch and I can move freely.